The preparations were nearly completed,all the information was gathered and analyzed two to three times just to be sure that no one made a mistake.
This was going to be the biggest military operation in human history and the most bloody that the galaxy ever saw.
Two days before the start of the operation a stealth scout ship reported a Federation's science ship approaching their territory.
This was strange as the Federation wasn't expanding in this direction and even if they did then they were teens of thousands of light years away.
Everyone started working as fast as they could to analyze the situation.
This was probably a minor unforeseen incident but they had to be sure as the operation that was about to start was meticulously prepared for over a century and there was no place for complacency.
-Send two cruisers with their escorts to intercept,full stealth and I want a rapport about that ship ASAP.
Simon ordered calmly.
He might have the look of an eighteen year old but he was now over a century and a half old and he spent most of that time in simulations and right now there was only calmness and decisiveness in his voice.
-Sending orders now.
The Comms officer said.
Soon two cruisers, six destroyers,a dozen frigates and two dozen corvettes jumped out of the system.
This was the standard composition in the fleet and a battle ship would have at least four cruisers as escorts with all the additional ships.
-Good job,now contact the scout operator and tell him to observe that ship and don't lose it.
The Admiral complimented the young officer and gave out additional orders.
It would take the dispatched ships about thirty hours to reach the science vessel as it was about four thousand,five hundred light years away from them.
The Humanity territory spanned for over one point five thousand light years but they had scouts and sensors as far as five thousand light years out, to serve as an early warning system in case that someone decided to pay them a visit.
The fleet didn't stop the preparations as the federation ship would soon be just a pile of scrap if the Admiral wished it and they all knew that he hated the science ships from the Federation the most as he was taken from earth by one of the science vessels.
Right now the story of Admiral Black became something of a legend that inspired the new generations of humanity.
An hour after he dispatched the small fleet,Simon received a report about the federation ship.
The data included:the design,weapons,shields,standard crew size,sensor range,and many more details about the ship.
Humans were sending their stealth scouts into the federation territory for decades now and their cloaking ability helped them with gathering all necessary data crucial to their operation.
They now knew all there was to know about the enemy's fleets and defenses,their secret research facilities,technologies and everything else that they were interested in.
The special forces equipped with the stealth armor dubbed by the soldiers the Predator armor as it made them almost invisible managed to sneak in and out of the Federation facilities unnoticed and they managed to retrieve a lot of the research data and top secret files.
The A.I were weary helpful with hacking the systems and retrieving the data once the humans infiltrated the facility.
Right now humanity knew everything about their enemies but the enemy didn't know that humanity even existed and they planned to keep it that way.
The report that Simon was reading right now confirmed that it was a science vessel and he even knew the class because this ship was identical to the one he,Mikael and Steuner destroyed in the Sol system all those years ago.
This one had a bit better shields and more powerful weapons but in the end he was now sure that sending two cruisers with their escorts was a gigantic overkill.
The ships that humanity possessed now were much more powerful than the federation's newest ships and this thing was a museum piece with some upgrades.
Even if Simon sent a single destroyer to take care of it,it would still be more than enough as one salvo from a destroyer would do the job.
Anyway it was better to be safe than sorry he thought to himself and proceed with the preparations for departure.
When the small fleet arrived at the target destination they jumped in outside the system and engaged their cloaking devices,then they proceeded into the system to find their target.
The scout operator sent them a message that contained the target's location in the system and informed them that the ship had launched a shuttle down to the fourth planet which was an M class world that could become a great colony in the future.
The fleet found the ship and immediately contacted the Admiral to confirm their orders.
-Admiral we have the target in sight but they launched a shuttle to the planet below,what are your orders?
The captain of the cruiser asked.
-Destroy the ship and drop a nuke on the shuttle location,make sure that they won't call for help.
Simon answered with a cold voice.
-Yes,Sir.
The captain confirmed his order as received and gave orders for the entire fleet to target the enemy ship.
-Open Fire.
He ordered and all of the ships fired their energy weapons almost simultaneously.
The science vessel managed to detect the build up of energy in the fleet and activated their shields but that only bought them a millisecond at most before their shields failed and their ship was vaporized by the incoming energy beams.
The crew of the federation vessel didn't even have the time to activate their communications array before they were destroyed.
Then the humans dropped seven thermonuclear devices onto the planet surface,the first warhead targeted the shuttle and the rest were sent to level everything around the first explosion.
Just to be sure that there were no survivors,they waited for the dust to settle and scanned the surface but they found no life signs anywhere near the explosions.
-Mission accomplished,proceeding to the rendezvous point with the fleet.
The captain reported to Simon.
-Well done.
Was the onl;y answer from Simon.
The main fleet was now ready to depart and it was better for the small fleet to meet them on the way then to delay the operation and wait for their return.
The fleet that was departing counted one hundred and twenty thousand ships of all classes.
The other fleet that was staying behind was of the same size and their job was to defend the New Confederation's territory and its citizens.
They were envious of their friends but they also knew that their own assignment was crucial for the war effort as thanks to them the other fleet could focus entirely on their task,knowing that there was a powerful fleet defending their home.